The battle between Qualcomm and MediaTek's flagship chips is about to erupt, and achieving over 4 million points on AnTuTu has become the norm.

As the flagship battle in September is about to kick off, the new flagship chips from the Snapdragon and Dimensity camps have finally emerged.

According to the latest news, Qualcomm's next-generation flagship processor will be named Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5, rather than the previously speculated Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. Seeing this name, friends familiar with Snapdragon processors might accidentally burst into laughter.

Before the official Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Lei Technology cannot confirm that Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 is the final name. However, from a product promotion perspective, this name is indeed more likely. It can not only retain the characteristics of the Elite series but also continue the reputation of the Snapdragon 8 Gen series, making it easier for Qualcomm to promote in different markets.

Image source: Weibo

As for Dimensity, there aren't any special changes. It continues to use the previous naming method as always. It has directly determined the code name of the new processor to be Dimensity 9500, which is convenient for everyone to remember. Without any surprises, there should be a Dimensity 9500+ next year, still following the familiar dual-flagship strategy.

There is also news that Qualcomm might launch a sub-flagship processor named Snapdragon 8 Gen5. If this is true, then the naming method of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 is easy to understand. It's just not clear whether the market positioning of Snapdragon 8 Gen5 is similar to that of Snapdragon 8s Gen4.

Alright, let's get straight to the point and see what information about the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 and Dimensity 9500 is worth paying attention to.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5, Challenging the Frequency Limit

It has been confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 will continue to use the "2+6" octa-core design. The clock frequency of the two super-large cores is as high as 4.61GHz, and the clock frequency of the six large cores has also reached 3.63GHz. The credibility of this data is quite high because it comes from the Geekbench website, which is basically the actual test data. The test device is the OnePlus PLK110, which is most likely the upcoming OnePlus 15.

Image source: Geekbench

However, the processor of this OnePlus 15 is obviously still in the testing phase, and the single-core and multi-core performance scores are not quite right. So, it's currently unknown how the single-core and multi-core performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 will be. We can only infer from the increase in clock frequency. The single-core performance should be expected to break through to 3500 points, and the multi-core performance should reach around 11000 points.

Although the Geekbench scores haven't been released yet, the Antutu scores have been exposed. It is reported that it will exceed 4 million points, about 600,000 points higher than the highest score of the previous generation. Of course, the scores of early engineering machines are just for fun. They basically only indicate the improvement in extreme performance. The actual scores will only be known after the actual devices are on the market.

It's worth noting that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 also has an "overclocked version", although the official should use the same code name. The first batch of users of the overclocked version will only be the Samsung S26 series, and it might even be exclusive to the S26 Ultra. Domestic Android phones will follow up later.

Image source: Tech Talks

Compared with the previous generation, the clock frequency of the super-large cores of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 has increased by 0.29GHz, and that of the large cores has increased by 0.1GHz. At this rate, it seems that it will be possible to reach 5.0GHz next year or the year after. To be honest, this speed is quite astonishing. If I remember correctly, the legendary Snapdragon 865 released in 2019 was the first mobile phone chip with a clock frequency exceeding 3.0GHz, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite released last year just broke through 4.0GHz.

If next year's Snapdragon flagship can break through 5GHz, then Qualcomm will successfully achieve the feat of increasing the clock frequency by 1GHz in two years. With such a diligent attitude, I really hope that PC chip manufacturers can learn from it.

In terms of GPU, the clock frequency of the next-generation Adreno 840 will be increased to 1.20GHz, an upgrade of 1.0GHz compared to the previous generation, and it will be equipped with an independent GPU cache of up to 16MB. Although the upgrade doesn't seem significant from the parameters, the bottleneck in the current mobile game experience actually doesn't lie in GPU performance but in finding a balance between performance, power consumption, and continuous performance release. Otherwise, no matter how powerful the performance is, it's useless.

Overall, the upgrade of the CPU performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 is a major highlight this time. At the same time, the upcoming new-generation NPU is also expected to bring surprises in terms of AI performance.

Dimensity 9500, Betting on the Gaming Experience

Next, let's take a look at the Dimensity 9500. From the currently exposed information, its performance is comparable to that of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5. The Dimensity 9500 uses Arm's latest all-large-core architecture. According to the data previously announced by Arm, it will consist of a total of 8 cores: 1×4.21GHz Travis + 3×3.50GHz Alto + 4×2.7GHz Gelas.

Even though the extreme clock frequency still lags behind that of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5, the pre-exposed Antutu score has also exceeded 4 million points. If the news is true, it means that the IPC performance of the Dimensity series has improved a lot. In addition, according to some Weibo bloggers, both OPPO and vivo will use the latest 1TB 4-Lane UFS 4.1 flash memory in their top-of-the-line models, and the scores are expected to increase a little more.

Image source: Weibo

Although the Geekbench data of the Dimensity 9500 hasn't been made public yet, the Weibo blogger Digital Chat Station exposed the Geekbench test scores of the engineering version of the Dimensity 9500 a few months ago. The single-core score exceeded 3900 points, and the multi-core score exceeded 11000 points. In terms of single-core performance, it even exceeded that of the Snapdragon, approaching that of Apple's A19 Pro (to be honest, it's doubtful as the single-core performance has soared too much).

However, the biggest improvement of the Dimensity 9500 is in GPU performance. From the currently known information, the new-generation Mali-G1-Ultra MC12 GPU has about a 40% improvement in GPU efficiency and ray-tracing performance compared to the previous generation, which can provide a high-refresh ray-tracing game experience of 100FPS on mobile terminals such as mobile phones.

It's not difficult to see from the exposed information of the Dimensity 9500 that this time MediaTek and Arm have chosen to bet on the gaming market, hoping to further expand the market share of the Dimensity series in the gaming phone market. I have tested several mid-range performance flagships focusing on the gaming experience in the past six months, and the overall performance of the Dimensity 9400+ left a good impression on me. So, I'm really looking forward to the gaming performance of the Dimensity 9500.

Image source: Twitter

Moreover, from the CPU architecture, the Dimensity 9500 doesn't seem to be pursuing extreme performance but is focusing on optimizing CPU efficiency. It is expected to perform well in terms of battery life. If last year's Dimensity 9400 raised the performance ceiling of the Dimensity series by a large margin, then this year's Dimensity 9500 focuses on stability and further improves the user's actual experience.

As for more detailed information, you can wait for the first-hand information brought back by Lei Technology after attending the Dimensity 9500 press conference.

Don't Just Focus on CPU and GPU, Is AI Performance the Key?

Currently, the first batch of flagship phones with Dimensity 9500 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 have been basically determined. It's not difficult to see that mobile phone manufacturers are quite satisfied with the new-generation flagship chips. They have made many upgrades in terms of imaging performance and also hinted that they will make new breakthroughs in AI applications.

One piece of information that is actually very worth paying attention to is that many mobile phone manufacturers have chosen to abandon the 1-inch main camera and return to the traditional large-sensor track. This news has been around for a month. At that time, many people complained about the "performance regression" of flagship mobile phones. However, considering the characteristics of the new-generation flagship processors, Lei Technology thinks that everyone can rest assured for now.

What are the advantages of a 1-inch main camera? It's nothing more than the higher light intake brought by the large sensor, which can provide better signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range. However, these advantages are also the strong areas of computational photography. As the AI performance of the processor is further upgraded (the NPU performance of the Dimensity 9500 is estimated to be twice that of the previous generation), you will find that even if the sensor area becomes smaller, the actual imaging experience doesn't get worse; in fact, it might even be better.

Seeing this, I'm sure many readers will scold: "Is there a reason for the downgrade?" Actually, there's no need to be so extreme. Although a 1-inch large sensor is good, it also sacrifices the feel of the mobile phone. And for most people, the current mobile phone imaging performance is already excessive. When the experience is better, there's no need to worry about the parameters.

Speaking of which, I've also seen many strange comments. It seems that some netizens think that the improvement of mobile phone AI performance is just a gimmick and not as practical as the improvement of CPU and GPU performance. This view is actually incorrect. Because the current mobile phone systems have long been deeply integrated with AI, and the AI applications you see are just the surface manifestations.

Image source: Google official website

Let me put it this way. Manufacturers such as OPPO started using AI to optimize the system experience a few years ago. AI will optimize the system's performance scheduling according to the user's usage habits, improving the fluency and battery life of the mobile phone. In addition, AI has long been involved in various application scenarios such as imaging and gaming. For example, iQOO's ultra-clear + ultra-frame concurrent technology allows players to experience a 2K 144Hz game screen on their mobile phones. All these are thanks to AI.

It can be said that if there is no AI support and the GPU has to run a 2K 144Hz game, your mobile phone might directly overheat and throttle. So, a long time ago, Lei Technology proposed that in the future, mobile phone chips will no longer be centered around CPU and GPU performance but will become a tri-polar situation of CPU + GPU + NPU (AI). If any one of them lags behind, it will affect the experience.

This is also the reason why Lei Technology is very looking forward to the next-generation flagships. From the currently exposed information of Snapdragon and Dimensity, a significant improvement in AI performance is a certainty. Correspondingly, the actual experience in gaming, imaging, and daily use will also be significantly upgraded. Everyone can look forward to it.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Lei Technology", author: Lei Technology. Republished by 36Kr with permission.